Tag: Elias Castillo
California Indians Demand Cruelty to Ancestors Be Disclosed as California Mission Foundation Tries to Declare El Camino Real a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A proposal by the California Mission Foundation to have the state’s famed El Camino Real route declared a UNESCO Heritage Site is being bitterly opposed by state Indians who said it would only “honor and glorify the brutal conquest” of Indian lands. “Our tribe and many other California Tribes impacted by the California Mission system Read more…
Call In: Valentin Lopez in a Discussion of Serra’s Canonization
Public Radio Station KALW featured Aman Mutsun Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez in a discussion of the issues surrounding Junipero Serra during the program Call In on Sept. 14, 2015. Listen at http://kalw.org/term/elias-castillo#stream/0
Is America’s New Saint More of a Sinner?
The Amah Mutsun opposition to canonizing Junipero Serra is part of story reported by Public Radio International, a nonprofit orgaization whose content attracts nearly 19 million people around the world each month. “We’ve asked The Pope to work with our tribal members to begin a healing process. And we have not heard back from him,” Valentin Lopez, chairman Read more…
Association of Tribal Governments Letter Opposing Serra Sainthood
The California Association of Tribal Governments has written a letter to Richard Garcia, Bishop of the Diocese of Monterey, Ca., “with our hope and prayers that someone with influence within the Catholic Church may advise his Holiness Pope Francis to reevaluate his decision to canonize Friar Junipero Serra,” and asking for a meeting to reevaluate Read more…
California’s Saint, and a Church’s Sins
An opinion piece by New York Times writer Lawrence Downes describes opposition to the canonization of Junipero Serra. The piece quotes Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band: “How can Pope Francis and the Catholic Church speak or act with moral authority when they know that they have mistreated the indigenous people?” and the Read more…
Radio KPFA’s Visionary Activist Show
The July 23 program features Valentin Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, and authors Matthew Fox and Elias Castillo discussing their opposition to plans to canonize Junipero Serra. (Audio)
Author Shatters the Image of California’s Missions
In a presentation to the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, Author Elias Castillo refutes the myth that the 21 Franciscan missions in California were idyllic sites where Franciscan padres and Native Americans lovingly commingled. In reality, the missions were death camps in which the Catholic missionaries, guided by mission founder Junípero Serra’s direction that the “savage” Read more…